A botched pressure test of a Russian space capsule slated to launch the next crew to the International Space Station has forced NASA and its partners to delay the planned liftoff for more than a month.

The Russian Soyuz spacecraft launch was originally slated for March 29, but now is targeted for no earlier than May 15, NASA's International Space Station program manager Mike Suffredini told reporters Thursday.

Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: "Astronaut Abby" is at the controls of a social-media machine that is launching the 15-year-old from Minnesota to Kazakhstan this month for the liftoff of the International Space Station's next crew.

The Soyuz's crew capsule, one of three modules that make up the entire Soyuz TMA-04M vehicle, has been scrapped after an accident during testing caused it to spring a leak in one of its descent module's rocket thruster fuel tanks. Now Russia's main space contractor, RSC Energia, is readying the next spaceship on the line, though the issue will cause a lengthy delay.

"This particular event is very unfortunate, but you know this is a complicated business and things happen," Suffredini said. "To me this is not indicative of some overarching problem at the Energia corporation. I have every confidence that they'll figure out the cause of this and rectify it for the future." [Russia's Manned Soyuz Space Capsule Explained (Infographic)]

With the retirement of NASA's space shuttle fleet last year, Russia's three-person Soyuz space capsules are currently the only vehicle available to ferry American astronauts to and from the International Space Station. NASA plans to eventually use private U.S.-built commercial spacecraft to transport crews and cargo to the station, but those new vehicles are still years away from being ready.

Meanwhile, NASA is contemplating another delay — in this case, of the unmanned SpaceX Dragon capsule's inaugural trip to deliver supplies to the space station. The private spacecraft was due to make its first test launch to the orbiting laboratory on Feb. 7, but Suffredini said the latest target date is March 20, and even that might be a stretch, as the vehicle still requires more testing and some minor fixes.

Space station hang time
The faulty Soyuz capsule was slated to carry NASA astronaut Joe Acaba and Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin up to the space station to begin long-duration stays.

Expedition 31 crew members take a break from training at NASA's Johnson Space Center to pose for a crew portrait. Image released July 14, 2011.

However, because of the Soyuz issues, NASA and Russia have decided to extend the current crew's mission to keep the space station running smoothly. Those three were scheduled to return to Earth March 16, but now will come home April 30.

The delay is also likely to cause rippling setbacks in other planned launches and landings later this year.

"We probably won't see the next Soyuz until the mid-July timeframe," Suffredini said. "There'll be about a two-week impact as we go into the fall and winter. Although there is a schedule impact, from a performance standpoint there's really no impact" to operations on the station. [Video: Soyuz Rocket's Bumpy Ride — The History]

Under pressure
The Soyuz problem occurred during pressure testing of the Soyuz's descent module and part of its propulsion module.

The bell-shaped descent module seats the Soyuz crew during launch and landing and is located between the propulsion and orbital modules. It is the only part of the Soyuz that returns to Earth. The propulsion and orbital modules are discarded during re-entry.

"Right before they ship the spacecraft, they do a pressure test where they over-pressurize the vehicle because it's designed to handle more than normal pressure, and then they hold that pressure for a while, and if it holds that pressure you consider it a success," Suffredini said. "In the process of doing that it was exposed to a pressure that is substantially higher than what they had planned."

This elevated pressure caused deformations on part of the spacecraft, prompting some of its welding joints to leak.

Since the spacecraft wasn't designed to handle these pressure loads, the total repercussions to the hardware were unknown, and officials decided to ditch the vehicle altogether rather than attempt to repair it.

That booster was similar enough to the ones Russia uses to loft people to orbit that NASA and Russia delayed the scheduled manned liftoffs until the cause of the accident had been determined and fixed.

"Our Russian colleagues have had a number of challenges last year relative to launches and they've taken that very seriously and are trying to look for any consistent clues across the board," Suffredini said. "Compared to the human spaceflight side, I can tell you from a booster standpoint, they do treat the human vehicles completely differently."

You can follow SPACE.com assistant managing editor Clara Moskowitz on Twitter @ClaraMoskowitz. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcomand on Facebook.

Ultimate space shot

2011 was a year of farewells in space: an end to the space shuttle program ... NASA's official abandonment of the Spirit rover on Mars ... and the leavetaking of NASA's next Mars rover. This unprecedented image shows a different kind of leavetaking. Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli snapped the picture of Endeavour docked to the International Space Station on May 23 as he was leaving in a Soyuz spacecraft. This was the only opportunity to photograph the space station and shuttle together from an orbital vantage point.
(Paolo Nespoli / NASA / ESA)
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Tribute to Gabby

During a post-landing ride on a Russian helicopter, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly wears a blue "Gabby" wristband in honor of his sister-in-law, wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Kelly and his fellow crew members from the International Space Station returned to Earth on March 16. Kelly's twin brother, Mark Kelly, is Giffords' husband. The two Kellys were the only twins to serve together in NASA's astronaut corps. Mark Kelly retired from NASA in October.
(Bill Ingalls / AFP - Getty Images)
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Up from the clouds

Stefanie Gordon captured this remarkable picture of the shuttle Endeavour's ascent on May 16 while she was on a commercial airline flight from New York to Palm Beach, Fla.
(Stefanie Gordon / for msnbc.com)
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Hanging on

NASA astronaut Greg Chamitoff holds a handrail during the fourth spacewalk conducted by the shuttle Endeavour's crew at the International Space Station. During the seven-hour, 24-minute spacewalk on May 27, Chamitoff and astronaut Michael Fincke (visible in the reflections of Chamitoff's helmet visor) moved a 50-foot-long inspection boom to the station, officially completing U.S. station assembly.
(NASA via EPA)
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First Family on the final frontier

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(Saul Loeb / AFP - Getty Images)
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Waiting for the last launch

Spur King, from Armarillo, Texas, sleeps on the roof of a van in Titusville, Fla., as he waits to watch the liftoff of space shuttle Atlantis from NASA's Kennedy Space Center on July 8. Atlantis' mission marked the end of the 30-year space shuttle era.
(Joe Raedle / Getty Images)
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Last liftoff

NASA managers watch from Firing Room Four of the Launch Control Center at Kennedy Space Center as the space shuttle Atlantis lifts off from Launch Pad 39A on July 8.
(NASA)
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Back to Earth

The space shuttle Atlantis blazes a trail back home through the atmosphere in this photograph, captured by the crew aboard the International Space Station on July 21. Airglow over Earth can be seen on the horizon.
(NASA via EPA)
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Night landing

The space shuttle Atlantis glides down from a moonlit sky to the runway at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 21. Atlantis' touchdown marked the end of a 30-year odyssey for NASA's shuttle fleet.
(Pierre Ducharme / Reuters)
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On the beam

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(ESO)
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Does 'Pacman' have teeth?

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(NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA)
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Getting the rover ready

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(Damian Dovarganes / AP)
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Millipedes on Mars

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(NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)
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Walking on a mock Mars

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(Lightroom Photos / Zuma Press)
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Celestial snow angel

The bipolar star-forming region called Sharpless 2-106, or S106 for short, looks like a soaring, celestial snow angel in this image from the Hubble Space Telescope, released Dec. 15. The outstretched "wings" of the nebula record the contrasting imprint of heat and motion against the backdrop of a colder medium. Twin lobes of super-hot gas, glowing blue in this image, stretch outward from the central star. A ring of dust and gas orbiting the star acts like a belt, cinching the expanding nebula into an hourglass shape.
(NASA / ESA / STScI / AURA)
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Outer-space ornament

The moon hangs over Earth's limb like a holiday ornament in a picture from the International Space Station.. Original tweet from Oct: 21, 2011: "#TGIF Here's a beautiful moon shot to start your weekend #NASA #ISS" http://twitpic.com/73povh
(Ron Garan / NASA)
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Golden Gate ... to space?

A new Virgin America A320 jet, aptly named "My Other Ride Is a Spaceship," flies in tandem with the SpaceShipTwo rocket plane and its mothership over the Golden Gate Bridge on April 6. The aircraft landed at San Francisco International Airport, becoming the first planes to arrive at the new $388 million, 640,000-square-foot Terminal 2. SpaceShipTwo is expected to begin rocket-powered suborbital test flights during 2012 - not from San Francisco, but from the Mojave Air and Space Port near Los Angeles.
(Mark Greenberg / Virgin America)
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A little lunar base

Hillary Livingston adds the finishing touches to a scale-model lunar base camp in the "Beyond Planet Earth" exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History in New York on Nov. 10. The exhibition looks forward to the next 50 to 100 years of spaceflight, with the intention of fueling dreams of colonizing the moon and Mars.
(Piotr Redlinski / New York Times via Redux)
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After the landing

An aerial view shows vehicles with their headlights on converging on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in northern Kazakhstan after its landing on Nov. 22. The capsule brought NASA astronaut Michael Fossum, Russian cosmonaut Sergey Volkov and Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa back to Earth from the International Space Station.
(Shamil Zhumatov / Reuters)
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Galactic firestorm

The fiery birth of stars is chronicled in this view of the galaxy Centaurus A, captured by the Hubble Space Telescope and released on June 16.
(NASA/ESA via AFP - Getty Images)
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Groovy view of Vesta

This image obtained by the framing camera on NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows the south pole of the giant asteroid Vesta. The probe entered orbit around Vesta on July 16 for a year's worth of observations.
Scientists are discussing whether the circular structure that covers most of this image originated by a collision with another asteroid, or by internal processes early in the asteroid's history. Images in higher resolution might help answer that question.
(NASA)
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A falling star in autumn

An Orionid meteor streaks through the skies above French Creek State Park in Pennsylvania early Oct. 22, with the reds, yellows and oranges of autumn reflected in the trees below.
(Jeff Berkes)
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Colorful crash

The Antennae are a pair of colliding galaxies about 70 million light-years away in the constellation Corvus. This color-coded image, released Oct. 3, combines views from the Hubble Space Telescope and the newly inaugurated ALMA radio telescope array in Chile.
(ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO))
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That's heavy, dude

An unmanned Boeing Delta 4 Heavy rocket rises from its launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Jan. 27. The heavy-lift launch vehicle sent a spy satellite into orbit for the National Reconnaissance Office. This was the largest rocket ever launched from the West Coast.
(Bryan Walton / AP)
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Monster blast from the sun

When an M-3.6-class flare occurred near the edge of the sun, it blew out a gorgeous, waving mass of erupting plasma that swirled and twisted over a 90-minute period on Feb. 24. The event was captured in extreme ultraviolet light by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. Some of the material blew out into space, and other portions fell back to the surface.
(SDO Goddard Space Flight Center)
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Quartet of moons

Four Saturnian moons, from tiny to huge, make an appearance amid the planet's rings in this composition from the Cassini orbiter, released Oct. 24. Bright Dione is in the foreground, with Titan in the background. The dot just to the right of Saturn's nearly edge-on rings is Pandora, and Pan is just a speck embedded within the rings, to the left of Titan and Dione.
(NASA / JPL-Caltech / SSI)
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Lights, camera, action

Norwegian photographer Tommy Eliason captured this amazing view of the northern lights, the Milky Way and a meteor streaking across the sky over Ifjord, Norway, on Sept. 25. The year was notable for producing frequent auroral displays.
(Tommy Eliassen / Caters News Agency)
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Pool practice

With the aid of scuba divers, spacesuit-clad astronaut trainees take part in drills in a pool at Russia's Star City cosmonaut training center outside Moscow on Feb. 18. Underwater training simulates conditions of weightlessness and is a part of space crew training.
(Sergey Ponomarev / AP)
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The glow below

A picture taken from the International Space Station on Sept. 17 shows two docked Russian spacecraft with the southern lights below. The auroral display is caused by the interaction between solar particles and Earth's magnetic field.
(NASA via AP)
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Editor's note:
This image contains graphic content that some viewers may find disturbing.